41-41, .500 seems so long ago. The Sixers seemed to be on the precipice of taking that elusive next step up the standings. Outside of the horrible final game, they showed flashes of ascending the ladder in the East. Right there with them were the Chicago Bulls. At least one of those teams is still there.
Much like the Sixers, the Bulls lost one of their best players (Ben Gordon) to free agency. They also returned a key contributor (Luol Deng) from injury, and they stumbled out of the gate. Coach Vinny Del Negro (best mullet in the NBA) spent the first two months of the season firmly planted on the hot seat, but the Bulls have since rallied and coming into tonight's game at the Wach, they're right back at .500 and fighting for a playoff berth.
They lost their top scorer, but really haven't taken a step back. They're also sitting on a decent amount of cap space this summer, so things are looking up for the Bulls. They aren't exactly a strong team, they are defensively, but their offense is stagnant, at best. They rely heavily on Rose and Deng. Salmons is coming on after an extremely slow start, but they don't get much scoring up front.
Chicago has really played excellent ball recently, going 9-3 in their past twelve after making a key adjustment by starting Kirk Hinrich alongside Rose and sliding Salmons to the "scorer off the bench" role. They recently won 5 straight games over +.500 teams on the road, but then returned home and laid an egg against the lowly Clippers. Needless to say, they're probably going to be motivated by the letdown at home tonight.
The back court rotation of Rose, Hinrich and Salmons is going to cause severe problems if Eddie Jordan insists on limiting Jrue's minutes. Obviously, the matchup I'm dying to see is Jrue guarding Rose, I'm just wondering how much of it we're going to see.
Brand will be working against a rookie, so expect him to get looks. Iguodala has a tremendous athletic advantage on Deng and with Iverson out hopefully he'll play a bigger role in the offense tonight.
Overall, I expect Jordan to panic against a solid defensive team and start trotting wacky lineups out there to "get some flow." My concern about the all offense lineups he loves is Noah, Tyrus Thomas, Deng and Gibson are all very good offensive rebounders. Giving up second chances is one sure-fire way to turn a terrible offense into a terribly efficient offense. Keep an eye on the glass if/when Jordan decides to use Speights at the five and Thad at the four.
Key to The Game: Keeping Rose out of the lane. Make him a jump shooter.
If ______________ the Sixers will win: 25+ minutes for Jrue.
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This is your game thread, I'll be here throughout so join me to see what former mediocrity and current mediocrity look like when pitted against each other in a half-full house.
REmember when Billy King chose Willie Green over John Salmons - man those were the good old days.
Sure Salmons is not good - but wouldn't you rather have him than WG on the roster?
Yeah, he's more expensive, though. He's pretty much what I expect Lou to be in about 3 years, overpaid bench scorer.
In his defense, Willie Green is over paid too :)
Yep. Do you remember feeling really lucky when Willie blew his knee out and voided that contract? Like we had dodged a bullet?
Kind of, except deep in my heart I knew Bily King was as stupid as he proved to be :)
I can't wait to see Thad at PF today.Tyrus Thomas & Joakim Noah will abuse the shit out of him.I hope EJ gives Speights more minutes today.Yes,he doesn't defend,but at least he can stay in front of 'em.
Jordan said Green would start opposite Holiday based on a recommendation from his coaching staff. He likes having Williams come off the bench.
Will the coaching staff be coaching the rest of the game as well?
Hahaha. Do you think the rest of the coaching staff (Ayers, etc.) is a mess also? Are they equally inept or do you think they just look like it because they have to carry out Jordan's mandates?
The staff has obviously shown EJ what it takes to be a failed Sixers coach(Lynam and Ayers.) But, being the overachiever EJ is, he took what they showed him to a whole new level.
Salmons is like the crazy girl you dumped but now, since you have no girl, she looks good.
I hate both. They are the same player IMO. They can get hot and seem like that are capable players. When crunchtime comes though, they will revert back to sucking. Actually that's common in Philly sports in general.
My prediction is thad goes off tonite and finds his mojo. Then takes off (like a rocket, not a slouch) for the remainder of the year. 28+ points and 8+ rebounds.
Needless to say, I like my predictions BOLD.
They are the same player except one is 6'7 (ish) and defends better than the other and has some court vision, some dimensions to his game where the other likes to shoot a lot and do little else
Hmmn, Willie and Jrue huh? Still think Jrue's minutes go under 17.5.
Of course he is
Complaining gets you minutes in Philadelphia, it's something Sam established in the O'Brien era, i'm suprised he hasn't talked about his minutes yet
tried to go to willie in the post w/ hinrich on him on the first possession. Not exactly the matchup i'd be looking for early.
EB looking good early.
Per usual
Don't worry - they'll forget about him shortly i'm sure
Jrue forces Rose into a turnover, breakaway foul on the other end.
Jesus, like taking candy from a baby for EB. 4/4 so far.
Who is guarding him - Noah or Thomas?
Gibson and Noah. He's smoked both of them.
Nice move by Rose burned Jrue there. Faked going into the screen, Jrue fought over, and Rose reversed course. Got fouled.
And Jrue is out after 6:36. Motherfucking Jordan.
If Eie doesn't protect his psyche, who will?
Iguodala looking more involved early.
EB seems much more involved when jrue is out there. Guy comes out of the gate on fire, then jrue takes a seat and EB doesn't even touch the ball.
Rose is abusing Lou. Carney in now, not sure who he's going to match up with.
Here's that small lineup, watch the glass.
Anybody else notice that AI9 never gives EB the ball on the pick n roll
In general, yes. Haven't seen it tonight yet.
two times now brand sets the screen iggy draws 2 players and rather than pass it to EB he goes the other way to a man who is covered
I'll keep an eye on it. Sounds about right, though.
It's been somthing i've noticed recently. Don't know if he does it conciously or if he just doesn't recognize that it is open. Whatever it is he needs to get that man the ball when he is feeling it.
Sweet pass, Lou.
how many wins do you think we could have right now with dileo as our coach?
24, 25 maybe? A little over .500 depending.
4 assists, 0 turns for Iguodala in the first.
Predictably, the defense went to shit when Jordan put in his shitty defensive lineup.
Up by 1 after 1, 26-25.
Apparently EJs gut told him we needed more scoring.
Nice D Lou.
Another O-Board for against the small lineup.
Lou is so overrated. Bad facilitator, defensive disaster.
Stupid pass by Jrue there.
Thad and Speights at 4 and 5 is surprisingly not working.
I'm just shocked Jrue is back in the game.
Down 7 in a hurry. Lou gambling for a steal, Hinrich hits a corner three to cap a 13-2 run, I believe.
thats at least the 3rd time lou sold out for the steal and missed. It's one thing to be a bad defender it is another to be dumb.
Jrue forces another turnover on Rose.
Sixers need to stop settling for all these jumpers.
Jrue finds EB 2 feet from the hoop. that's what we need.
Down by 6, 2:00 to go in the half, how do they finish here?
I am still amazed at Jrues ability to stay in front of some of the fastest guards in league of the dribble.
Nice tip by Sammy to EB for the 10-footer.
I really like what Jrue brings in defense,but c'mon,0-4 from the field ? This kid has to shoot better than that.Especially if he wants minutes from EJ.
One of them was from about 55 feet as the shot clock expired. He missed one clean look from about 18 feet, one runner and one wild drive to the lane that he shouldn't have taken.
Apparently he only shoots 27% from 16-23 feet so maybe he shouldn't have taken the clean 18-footer either. He does need to develop an offensive game or he'll be the Quinton Ross of point guards.
Actually, it was off a shot fake from three and I thought he could've gotten into the paint, so I agree.
And Green hits a prayer at the buzzer to move it back to a 6-point deficit at the half. They played them even over the final 2 minutes.
46-51 Bulls.
I'm just scared that Washington, Indiana and maybe Detroit will sell off pieces and drop us to the 7th pick or worse. For that reason alone we need to think seriously about tanking, just to keep up with the other lottery teams.
We're already pretty much right at the #7 pick. Those teams are tied w/ us. So is Sacto, actually. They really fell off a cliff, huh?
Well there are tiebreakers (they flip coins, right?) and if we out-tank them we can get #4. Apparently the Pacers are asking for too much for Murphy, Washington's dithering, I don't know if Dumars will ever get his act together. So we might not need to do that much to claim the spot. I don't know, however, that dealing Lou would make us any worse. Losing Sam sure would but I'm almost reluctant to trade him away, good centers don't grow on trees.
Please one day put Iguodala at shooting guard. This fuckin guy i wish i didnt care.
btw, the bulls grabbed 50% of available offensive rebounds.
Sickkkkkkkkkk pass by Iguodala
There we go. Iguodala just brought them all the way back w/out scoring a point.
Hey he gave it to him on the pick n roll. NICE!
Brand is playing great right now. He could have around 35 tonight.
Willie caused that three by Deng. No reason for him to leave to double Rose, Jrue had him. Then iguodala had to leave deng to cover hinrich, couldn't get back to his man in the corner in time. Stupid.
SAMMY!
Jrue forces another Rose turnover, leads to Iguodala for the breakaway, fouled and he misses both. Damnit.
Jrue easily staying in front of Rose and causing the TO fueled that fast break.
Brand can't be stopped.
Imagine a coach who wasn't a moron who played Brand 30+ minutes per night and remembered him in the offense ALL NIGHT - he'd average around 22-24 points easy I bet
Did you see Jrue stop that break?
Yeah, as far as individual 1 on 1 defense, we are seeing something special. His problems come when pick and rolls and other off-ball rotations. That also comes with a better defensive coach and a cohesive unit, but he needs work there. When that comes, look out.
And with minutes and learning the NBA and, you know, being old enough to drink
How many 19 year olds in college play man defense this well?
why take a timeout there? He's going to take Jrue out and that's just silly.
And you're surprised by this why?
He's actually still in there. lou for willie.
This sucks that we may never see what this team could really be if coached by someone who knows what they are doing. You see little glimpses here and there and all it takes is a couple of EJs dumb moves to ruin it.
Lou on Salmons is a brutal mismatch.
Lou on anyone is a brutal matchup.
Here we go again. Time for a run by the bulls.
No defense at all.
Didn't like that three from Jrue at all.
Alright, Sixers up by 1 heading into the fourth. Holiday and Iguodala both played the entire quarter, and it was really their defense that fueled the comeback.
Hey - over 18.5
How many fourth quarter minutes, over under at 4
hmmn. Is Ivey in here? Yup.
Is it really Jrue, Lou, Royal, Iguodala and Thad Young?
That has to be a mistake by Yahoo doesn't it?
Brand should play at least 10 minutes in the 4th (and talking about ball hogs - why does he have zero assists?)
Jrue is out.
Lou, Ivey, ai9, ty, ms.
Oh - well that makes me feel SO MUCH better
Seriously - if brand doesn't get 9-10 minutes in the 4th fire this bozo
Because he can't be stopped!
This free throw thing is starting to bother me, I think it's a symptom of the game they run, but the sixers should never have less free throws than the other team at home
"In trying to build the lead you want to be solid"
Maybe he should say semi-permeable because the Sixers are really "solid" of offense in the half-court. Tried to give Pinckney a chance but he really hasn't grown on me much.
Hilarious entry pass there behind the back. Something you would see in a Globetrotters-Nationals game maybe.
so if iguodala goes for 15/10/10 - what will the complaints be?
Couldn't score 20?
Forgot Ivey was on the roster. There is no reason the Sixers should lose this game tonight but why do I have a feeling that we will see a limited amount of Jrue in the 4th quarter, dumb substitutions, and a game lost by a terrible shot/possession by the Sixers to end it.
OK, let's guess why Sammy isn't in this game.
"I don't know why." Is my guess.
Please get Sammy and Brand back in there. Speights isn't hitting his jumpers and he just got blown by. It was Brad Miller doing the blowing.
Damn Speights AI9 needs you to hit that assist.
Damn, Dre we didn't need that early three there being up five.
Really curious shot for a guy who probably is looking for assists. I think he made a tough one before and thought it was a heat check. Bad one.
Dear Andre
If you wouldn't shoot three pointers you'd be 8 for 9 tonight
8 for 9 is better than 8 for 14 and it will make people shut up a bit
Now that's half right - now put in a CENTER you putz
Why does Royal Ivey EVER play - Iverson or no - what could he possibly bring?
lol...on cue he hits a 3
Kind of wondered the same thing when they resigned him last offseason. That was a nice look and follow through on the 3.
Timely three right there from Ivey. He's actually done that before in his limited PT here. Portland game rings a bell.
WTF was that?
Get Thad out of there.
Damn. Young needs to finish stronger. That was a 4-pt swing.
Royal-ly done!
w/ cheese.
Thad has played almost as many minutes as sam tonight and contributed next to nothing. Sam is working on double-double.
Ugh. Young stays in and Green comes in.
LW & WG to finish it. Sammy still collecting dust. This is fucking stupid.
Big shot EB.
Willie, Lou and Thad to close?
Worst perimeter defense in the league hands down. No other team I have seen this year is close.
Sam in. I doubt he makes any more subs, just gonna let Rose do that to Willie or Lou.
you wait until 4 minutes are left in the game, he has 2 fouls, you idiot
Iggy heaves up a 3-pt on a lousy possession. Sixers lose by 3.
Alright, they got Sammy back in, but Willie on Rose makes anything possible. That alone probably means they are going to have to outscore (and outshoot) the Bulls to win. When a team has an identity like the Bulls have, the Sixers are always a mess in these late game situations. They should get pick and rolled to death here.
Besides his veteran 'presence' I can't fathom why Green is in this game. I loved the hustle after he had been beat on the screen. That is what drives me nuts about Green. Not his mediocre ability but his mediocre effort.
I though Dre had EB on the P and R if he wanted him.
Yes
Thad coming right back in, with carney. For brand and dalembert. That's fucking stellar.
so you have a penetrator that can get by both of your perimeter guys so don't you need to keep the shot blocker/paint protector in the game?
I know Sam didn't handle that P and R well on the play before where Miller got that bunnie but damn.
True charity there. Lou was flying out of control to the rim out of control and was going to have a low pct shot.
He fucking put Thad at the five for DEFENSE! that's awesome.
The tank is in order. It had to rear it's head at some point in a close game, no?
Eddie Jordan everyone!
Is he clinically insane.
i'm speechless.
Did you expect any different at this point Brian?
Pinckney- "The length is difficult to contend with."
Especially when Sammy isn't in you idiot.
Must have a stop here. Let's see the lineup.
Nice D there by Iggy. Really shined on that end tonight.
Keep in mind what Iguodala just did to Rose when you start talking about how he isn't clutch.
It only counts as clutch if they show it on Sportscenter...you should know that Brian.
On the defensive end, you get no arguments from me. On the offensive though, if I were the opposing coach I would let Iggy take the final shot any day. Weak 3-pt shooter who can't create his own space.
He ain't too damn clutch on a free shot though. ugh
What Great D by Andre on Rose.
Brand needs to at least touch the ball on this possession
agreed.
OMG, Dre actually drove all the way to the hoop. And what do you know - he gets fouled.
Way to be aggressive Andre.
Oh god. Iguodala shooting free throws for the lead
Yeah, that certainly seems like a chink in the armor to me.
Iggy took it to the rim instead of heaving up a long jumper? Wow.
Has Jrue played in the 4th?
Nope, Lou played every second of the fourth.
Here we go.
1/2 from the line. EB rebound, misses. Ugh.
OT or a loss now. Or OT and a loss.
Please, please let Kurt take and brick the final shot.
Just hit the shot and put us out of our misery. We deserve it for playing Lou Williams and Thad in all these must-stop situations.
Good, sound defense there by Young. Didn't leave his feet, stuck up his hands, and didn't leave in so that Rose could get a BS foul cal.
Thad got that play right defensively. Remember the game against the Celtics last year? I just had some bad flashbacks.
Lou, Willie, Iguodala, Thad, Brand. He wouldn't, would he?
I know the high-screen is working well for the Bulls but man they are getting a little ridiculous with it.
Nice D Willie.
Hmmn. See what happens when you have two bigs on the floor?
But that was only because Kurt couldn't finish (big shock) after beating Lou so bad. It is amazing how often Lou get beat to his left.
How long has it been since Noah was in the game?
Brand saved Lou's ass on that drive. Hinrich had him SHOOK.
But Hinrich didn't even really shake him. Lou just made some half-ass stab at the ball and because his footwork sucks so bad he had no chance. If Lou wanted to become a decent defender, he would work on his footwork especially to the left.
As much as I want them to win this game, I want them to lose it the same.
The bigs saving lous ass
1:59 to go, up 2. Predictions?
Moving screen. Heh. That's fitting.
That was a BS whistle.
Willie got smoked and EB covered his ass.
You saying that was a BS whistle on that moving screen call on EB? or something else?
By my count, that is the 3rd time that Rose has just beat Green clean off the dribble from the top of the arc. Man Green sucks.
That damn EB, protecting the rim twice in crucial moments.
And Rose goes right by his man again, and Brand blocks the shot. Again.
Big triple by Iguodala.
Wow, EB so great on D in OT.
This just feels like a missed opportunity.
If Brand and Dalembert played a bunch consistently at the 4/5 and you had Holiday get his minutes at PG, this might be a half-decent defensive team. To bad it won't happen.
But would we be playing 3 on 5 if Jrue doesn't develop some semblance of an offensive game?
The best way to develop an offensive game is to rot on the bench. Gotta score to get minutes! Wait, that doesn't sound right.
Come on, he played 31 tonight. I don't know about rotting tonight.
Killer drive by AI9.
Son of a gun, Dre hesitated and attacked the rim for the second time. And what do you know a layup!
Finally. Why hasn't Iggy done that more often in terms of trying to go to the rim instead of throwing up a long-range jumper in a key spot?
Iguodala in overtime bas been...clutch
That's twice in critical situations that Iggy faked the step back and exploded to the rim. Really good sign.
Finally. Why hasn't Iggy done that more often in terms of trying to go to the rim instead of throwing up a long-range jumper in a key spot?
Raise your hand if you thought Iguodala was taking a jumper on that last one :)
Ouch! mine hit the ceiling...
So 4th/OT - no rebounds and no assists for Iguodala
Nope. 10 points, 2 steals and probably the defensive stop of the game on Rose.
Good to see Iguodala got his head out of his ass tonight. Man was he sulking the last 2 or 3 games.
Hell of a game tonight by a couple of guys including Iggy, Brand, and Dalembert.
Really this game showed me tonight what I thought this team was really capable of - .500 team that wasn't great but was capable of beating enough mediocre/above average teams at home to make the playoffs.
Instead, they are well below .500 yet and injuries aren't the real reason why.
Sammy and EB were very intimidating in OT. They killed Miller and whoever else was in the frontcourt (Noah?) for the Bulls.
Funny how the post-game show is touting the "great defense" in the 4th Qtr/OT. It was great "interior defense" but the perimeter defense was pathetic yet again tonight including Williams and Green getting beat repeatedly off the freaking dribble (no screen) late.
Yup, you won't hear a word about that.
wow. That games was fun. As much I wanted to root against them today I just couldnt do it.
Thanks for hanging in tonight, guys. At least it was exciting. I hate this bitter sweet feeling after wins, just hate it.
I know, I hate this feeling too. It was exciting to see them win one down the stretch, but I just quietly wanted them to .....
I just can't say it, it truly is bittersweet...